THE unique annual shinty/

hurling international match between Scotland and Ireland will be televised live by the BBC throughout Scotland for the first time today.

However, sportscotland, the Scottish Executive's national sports body, was criticised yesterday for refusing to recognise the event as a real international or support it financially.

The match in Inverness today is the modern expression of arguably the most ancient team sport in Europe.

Hugh Dan MacLennan, a respected shinty historian who will be in the BBC's commentary team at the Bught Park, said: ''This game is unquestionably an international event. The Irish certainly treat it as such and play it at the magnificent 80,000-seater Croke Park in Dublin.

''It attracts tens of thousands of spectators. But this is about more than just sport. It is about Scotland and Ireland's sense of themselves. So I find it a little sad that our national sports body seems unwilling to lift its eyes from some internal memorandum which provides the definition of an international.

''Recognition and investment by sportscotland could help make this into a real celebration of our shared heritage for the twenty-first century.''

Fergus Ewing, SNP MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, which covers one of shinty's main heartlands in Badenoch and Strathspey, said: ''Sportscotland's attitude is quite outrageous, refusing to recognise the obvious that when Scotland plays Ireland at any sport it is an international event.

''The BBC is now prepared to invest considerable resources televising it live to the whole of Scotland because of its growing importance. But sportscotland remains implacably opposed, ostensibly because of the rather bureaucratic consideration that there is no international body governing the sport.

''But the real reason is probably because it doesn't want to spend any more on what it clearly sees as a lesser sport.''

A spokeswoman for the agency rejected the criticism and said: ''We are delighted the BBC are covering the match. But it doesn't meet our criteria for funding internationals because in strict terms it is not a world or European-level event.

''It is very much a one-off because the structure of the game doesn't fit into an international programme. So we don't support the event.

''We see our role as supporting the development of the game in Scotland and are now giving around (pounds) 100,000 every year. We had discussions with the Camanachd Association, and as a result they receive (pounds) 50,000 in grant aid and support for a range of development posts.''

Compromise shinty/hurling rules have been developed, but the two codes undeniably come from the common Celtic root of camanachd.

The game goes back a long way. The Book of Leinster, written in the 12th century AD, records the first written report of a game of camanachd as being in the summer of 1272 BC.